Ruvie Ann A.

Ballester 2020A

Ethical Dilemma: Manipulated Research Data

When I was in undergrad in UST, my groupmates and I were assigned to do social research which includes

survey on Community Pharmacists and Consultants practicing proper prescription writing and dispensing in

accordance to Generics Act. Howard, one of my groupmates, was the one responsible for collecting and analyzing

the gathered data. Due to an unsatisfactory response-rate from the respondents, he planned to manipulate some

figures and present them in the report to fulfill the assignment requirements. He told me this plan and asked me not

to disclose it to anyone, including my other groupmates. I felt rather uneasy about this but did not stop Howard from

doing it.

Manipulating the report data undermines the credibility of academic work and breaks the rule of fair play

in the assessment system, and thus has an adverse effect on professors, students and the institution (stakeholders

involved). It also violates research ethics and is regarded as an act of academic dishonesty. I faced an ethical

challenge because I need to decide whether to cover up Howards wrongdoing (in which case I will sacrifice the

principle of honesty and fairness) or show zero tolerance to an unethical behavior. To evaluate each alternative, I

listed down all the relevant information of the stakeholders: Howard, deliberately violating the universitys policy

and regulations on academic integrity is an irresponsible behavior, my other groupmates who are unaware of the

situation, Ruvie (myself) who has to compromise principles such as integrity and fairness if I decided not to disclose,

other students who are honest in their research works, cheating and abusing the trust to the moderator and the

reputation of the university or department.

I got three options based to this situation: (1) Agreeing to Howards suggestion in manipulating the data,

(2) Dissuading Howard from the idea and encouraging him to seek advice from the moderator, and (3) Declining

Howards suggestion and seeking alternative ways to remedy the situation such as inviting more target groups to

take part in the study or improving the research design. From the above options, I chose option 2, to persuade

Howard to seek advice from the moderator. Covering up Howards dishonest behavior is not commensurate with

values such as honesty, responsibility and fairness. Secondly, I am aware that data manipulation is considered as

serious violation of research ethics, and deviated from any ethical codes. Also, it violates the universitys regulation.